Jesus’ clothes are torn off
- Artist: Bruce Onobrakpeya
- Date: 1969
- Medium: Linocut on paper
- Dimensions: image: 230 x 584 mm
- Museum: Tate Modern
- Collection record: Tate Modern website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Jesus’ clothes are torn off” by Bruce Onobrakpeya. It’s a 1969 linocut on paper, about 230 mm by 584 mm, and it’s one of fourteen prints that make up the artist’s “Fourteen Stations of the Cross” series. The series takes the traditional biblical scenes and re‑imagines them in an African setting. You’ll notice the apostles in bright Adire patterns, the men restraining Jesus wearing colonial‑era police uniforms, and the whole palette dominated by blues and greens with splashes of yellow and orange. Geometric shapes echo Nigerian textile and architectural motifs, and the crosses themselves are rendered with that same structured geometry. Onobrakpeya, a Nigerian artist who grew up during the late colonial period, used these prints to explore the encounter between Catholicism and Yoruba visual culture. Though the prints are often shown individually, they were originally conceived to be viewed together, each capturing a different moment from Jesus’ final days.
See it in person
Jesus’ clothes are torn off is in the collection of Tate Modern on Bankside, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
